Contents: Preface; A brief history of public health and the built environment; The state, ideology, health and built space in Africa; Town planning, public health and the colonial project; Racism versus health concerns as the rationale for racial segregation; Public health implications of modernist planning; Hygiene and sanitation conditions in West and Central Africa; Hygiene and sanitation in the Eastern and Southern Africa region; Hygiene and sanitation in Northern Africa; Solid waste disposal and sanitation technologies, and determinants of access to improved sanitation; Sustainable hygiene and sanitation strategies; References; Index.

'This timely work fills a very significant gap in the planning literature on Africa, examining how certain hygiene and sanitation concerns can be adequately dealt with by deliberately planning the built environment in Africa. The discussions, arguments and assertions presented by Professor Njoh are bold, refreshing and compelling and the work is replete with useful information and data that will definitely improve the research and understanding of planning and health matters in Africa. Providing both the theoretical and applied approaches as to how the problems can be tackled, and putting forward practical and affordable strategies and solutions, the book should empower local citizens, mid-management officials and international development organizations, as well as being an excellent resource to students and scholars of development.' Valentine James, Clarion University of Pennsylvania, USA 'Healthier conditions exist where European colonisation lasted longest. Paradoxically, this surprising conclusion argues for traditional actions like communal work to replace modern European solutions that so patently fail to remove the life-robbing conditions - so vividly pictured here - to which most Africans are prey. Njoh's command of appropriate case-specific detail is unmatched. Michael Mattingly, DPU-Associates, formerly of the Development Planning Unit, University College London, UK